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We are Shoreline residents who strive to provide you with news and information about the area in which we live and work. We cover Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, and some events and destinations in surrounding areas.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The state’s continued economic downturn means Shoreline Community College employees will learn over the next 10 days whether their positions will be cut in the next round of state-mandated budget reductions.

“It just gets worse and worse and worse,” Shoreline President Lee Lambert said November 30, at a brown-bag meeting on campus. The announcement was triggered by the November 19 state revenue forecast and Gov. Chris Gregoire’s statement that another 4.6 percent, about $1 million to the college, must be cut in the current budget year that ends June 30, 2011.

Lambert said cuts will hit all areas of college employees; classified, faculty and administrators. Lambert said the college has started the processes required by labor contracts to notify employees.

“We’ll notify the classified union immediately,” Lambert said, adding that faculty representatives have also been notified. Administrators, who are not unionized, will be told individually, he said.

Lambert didn’t say on Tuesday which positions or how many would be identified for layoff or reduction-in-force, but that details would be available soon.

“I hope to present a plan with at least the numbers of positions affected on December 10,” Lambert said. An all-campus meeting is scheduled for 12:30-2 p.m. that day in the PUB main dining room.

The process for layoff or RIF is outlined by contract and differs for each group. For example, seniority “bumping” rights come into play for classified employees. The classified contract is negotiated at the state level and offers the college less flexibility, he said. Position reductions for faculty members, who are represented locally, could be affected by retirements and other factors.

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comments:

I work at Shoreline and it is a great college to work at and for students to attend. I'm glad that the times printed this short essay because it's important for the public to understand what is happening to their state-funded resources. We are going to have to get solutions people. It's not OK to cut back on healthcare for the poor, unemployment benefits, police and schools. There must be a better way.

I went back to work as a result of attending worker retraining at Shoreline. Cutting back on education is short sighted. I understand the choices our government has to make but I'd rather see us make cuts in other areas.

Shoreline Community College employs some of the most caring, highly qualified instructors who have gone above and beyond to help students like myself with their academic pursuit.

As an active student who had attended a number of other schools, my experience at SCC had been nothing short of being exceptional. Perhaps, I may be just that lucky because each instructor I have met here just so happen to have the same kind of passion and commitment to help their students succeed.

At times, I wondered how many people I knew would skip lunch, come into work on days off, take time to gather resources for customers at their jobs, while genuinely enjoyed doing it. There aren’t too many.

Companies invest big dollars in scouting talent. SCC has them already. It's unfortunate that during these hard times, the school would be forced to let go of its most valuable assets. But there are choices that need to be made: the majority decided that affordable candies and sodas were more important than educating women and men to better serve our communities and the country in the future. It is very unfortunate, indeed.